The Role The Senior Manager, Payroll and People Operations is a hands-on leader who owns payroll, benefits, leaves, compensation, and HR operations across Versaterm's U.S., Canadian, and Quebec entities. This role combines close, working oversight of payroll - able to personally step in and run a pay cycle when needed - with building a reliable, well-run People Operations function and a structured, well-managed approach to compensation and benefits. AI is a standard part of how this role gets work done, the same way it's used across the organization today. Reporting to the CHRO, the Senior Manager leads execution, day-to-day program management, and compliance accountability across the full scope of the role.
What You Do Payroll Leadership- Own accurate, timely payroll processing - semi-monthly for U.S. and Canadian entities, biweekly for Quebec - including ad hoc payments, commissions, and bonuses.
- Maintain the ability to personally step in and run a full payroll cycle in any entity; this is a working leadership role, not a purely administrative one.
- Ensure compliance with federal, state, provincial, and Quebec-specific payroll tax regulations, including statutory and year-end filings (e.g., W-2s, T4s, T4As, RL-1s, T2200s), and maintain accurate state/provincial tax registrations and agency accounts.
- Act as data steward and primary partner to the payroll vendor (ADP) and own the Employer of Record (EOR) relationship (Rippling) for countries outside of North America;
- Support payroll and benefits integration for newly acquired entities as needed.
- Own payroll budgeting, forecasting, and internal controls - including recurring data validation and audit practices - and document processes to reduce key-person dependencies.
Benefits & Leave Program Ownership - Own the benefits program - health insurance, retirement plans, and related offerings - including plan design, vendor/broker strategy, renewals, rates, administrative standards, and escalation for vendors and third-party administrators.
- Own the leave management program end-to-end: policy design, jurisdictional compliance, and personal ownership of complex or high-risk cases.
- Ensure benefits and leave administration comply with applicable regulations - including ACA, ERISA, COBRA, FMLA, ADA, and Section 125, and Canadian/Quebec equivalents (ESA, EI, CPP, CNESST) - as well as privacy requirements for employee health information.
- Lead annual open enrollment across US and Canadian entities, including employee communications, education, and enrollment support in collaboration with benefits brokerages.
HR Operations & Systems - Own the HRIS (BambooHR) as system administrator, ensuring data integrity, clean workflows, and reliable reporting.
- Own People & Culture policy and compliance programs ensuring they are effective, well-documented, and audit-ready.
- Drive continuous improvement in HR service delivery, standardizing processes and closing gaps in the employee and manager experience.
- Use AI as a standard working tool across the role - for payroll and benefits analysis, compensation modeling, policy drafting, and reporting.
Governance & Reporting - Oversee recordkeeping and retention for payroll, benefits, and HR files in line with privacy requirements.
- Manage budgets across payroll, benefits, and HR operations, monitoring and reconciling spend.
- Support internal and external audits related to payroll, benefits, and HR operations.
- Support required workforce reporting (e.g., EEO-1) by maintaining accurate job classification data.
Compensation & Total Rewards - Administer and maintain the compensation framework - pay bands, job classification, and market benchmarking - in partnership with the CHRO.
- Support the annual compensation cycle, including budget planning, calibration, and recommendations for new hires, promotions, and equity adjustments.
- Ensure compensation practices comply with pay equity and pay transparency requirements across applicable jurisdictions.
People Leadership - Manage, coach, and develop a team across payroll and People & Culture operations, acting as both a player and a coach, and support team member professional growth.
- Partner cross-functionally with Finance, HR Business Partners, IT, and the CHRO.
- Provide front-line and escalated support to employees on payroll, benefits, leave, and compensation matters.
- Model discretion and confidentiality in handling sensitive employee and compensation information.
Other Duties as Required - Perform other related duties as assigned to support team objectives, departmental needs, and overall organizational priorities.
What You Bring- Bachelor's degree in Human Resources, Business Administration, Finance, or a related field preferred; PLP or CPP designation, or actively working toward one.
- 10+ years of progressive payroll, benefits, and HR operations experience, including multi-entity, cross-border (U.S./Canada) operations; Quebec payroll experience is a strong asset.
- A minimum of 3-5 years of demonstrated people leadership experience
- In-depth knowledge of U.S. and Canadian payroll, tax, and benefits regulations, and familiarity with pay equity and pay transparency requirements.
- Working knowledge of compensation practices and benchmarking, or strong aptitude and motivation to build this capability.
- Experience owning or administering an HRIS (BambooHR or similar); comfortable as a technical system owner, not just an end user.
- Familiarity with Employer of Record (EOR) arrangements (Rippling or similar) and job classification/FLSA exemption analysis is an asset.
- A genuine, daily user of AI tools (Claude, Copilot) in your own work - for research, drafting, analysis, and problem-solving. AI should already be part of how you work, not something you're learning on the job.
- Prior experience operating as both a player and a coach - comfortable personally executing a payroll run, not just managing others who do.
- Strong vendor management and project management skills.
- High degree of discretion and professionalism in handling confidential payroll, benefits, and compensation information.
- Excellent communication and organizational skills; able to manage several complex priorities simultaneously under deadline pressure.
AI is central to how Versaterm builds and delivers solutions for our customers. Within Talent Acquisition, we use AI-enabled tools to support certain aspects of the recruitment process, helping our team work more efficiently and spend more time connecting with great talent. AI supports our work, but all hiring and employment decisions are made by people.
